Tips and Resources

Topics

Assessment

Planning

Promotion

Evaluation

Hosting

Sharing Success

Training

Proven Prevention

College Drinking

Technical Assistance

Format

Handouts/Takeaways

Reports

Webinars/Videos

Websites

PowerPoint

Educating a community about underage drinking is only the first step in preventing
this problem. The ultimate goal of a Town Hall Meeting is to be a catalyst for change
by moving a community beyond awareness to evidence-based action. Event organizers
can best achieve this goal by focusing a community’s attention on how it can reduce
or eliminate specific environmental conditions that facilitate underage drinking.

Tips on Organizing a Solution-Focused Event

Organizations that hosted Town Hall Meetings leading to positive change recommend
that event organizers:

Involve youth in planning and conducting a well-informed event and in identifying
workable solutions;

Build the meeting agenda around a community assessment of conditions that are contributing
to underage drinking;

Connect the focus of the event to a specific objective (e.g., stronger enforcement
of existing laws or policy change) rather than to underage drinking in general;

Use a skilled facilitator to focus the conversation on solutions rather than complaints
about the difficulties of prevention;

Establish what specific actions will follow the event and who will carry them out;

Have an infrastructure in place to conduct event followup; and

Ensure that attendees know the event is part of a much larger effort, such as state
and federal underage drinking prevention initiatives.

Steps in Organizing a Solution-Focused Event

Baseball legend Yogi Berra once said, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you
might wind up someplace else.” Knowing where you want the community to be at the
meeting’s end, and mapping the route to get there, is a carefully planned process
involving:

Assessment, to define the underage drinking problem
and a community’s needs, capacity, and readiness to respond;

Planning, to design an event in ways that help ensure
that its objectives will be met;

Promotion, to attract an audience of size and scope
to carry out identified actions; and

Evaluation, to determine if the Town Hall Meeting
was effective as a catalyst for change.

Additional Resources

About Town Hall Meetings

Every 2 years, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration sponsors national Town Hall Meetings to educate communities about underage drinking and to mobilize them around its prevention. Prevention is working! Help continue the downward trend in underage drinking by planning to host or attend a meeting in your area.